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This “illusion of confidence” is now called the “Dunning-Kruger effect,” and describes the cognitive bias to inflate self-assessment. One day in 1995, a large, heavy middle-aged man robbed two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight. He didn’t wear a mask or any sort of disguise. And he smiled at surveillance cameras before walking out of each…

In our current medical system where access to medical care is based on whether you can afford good insurance, hospitals run into problems with having to care for patients who arrive and may not have adequate or even any insurance. Uninsured or under-insured patients put a financial drain on hospitals which cut into the bottom line of profits. If this person is homeless, it becomes problematic on what to do with an uninsured patient. Some ruthless hospital admin have resorted to the act of “patient dumping”, where a hospital will just remove a patient from the hospital and abandon them somewhere on the street.

This latest case in the news shows a guy who captured on his phone a group of Baltimore Hospital staff wheeling a patient out of the building and leaving her at a bus stop in freezing weather wearing only a patient gown. She appears mentally disoriented and unable to respond to the situation.

This is the latest horrific example of what happens in a society that doesn’t have universal health care services, and is heartbreaking on many levels. The easy target would be the security guards who threw her out in that condition, but it’s clear they were ordered to do so by someone in admin. Not that the guards are blameless – following orders to put someone helpless in a life threatening situation should be a criminal offense.

The choice we are going to have to make as a society is if this is the type of system we want- survival of the fittest and those who don’t have the financial means to get help are cast aside and ignored, or something more inclusive and humane?

Trump has stated that his “health plan” will stop people dying in the street, but in reality, he had no specific health plan to offer and left it up to the GOP to craft one, and all they did was attempt to gut the current ACA rather than do anything to fix the problem of the increasing uninsured. Had the good Samaritan not intervened, this women could have surely died from exposure.

It’s so hard to believe that 2017 is hurtling towards the close in its short remaining hours. Time certainly does fly when you’re busy. Of course this has been quite an event filled year as well. The November Surprise of 2016 was just the opening act of unanticipated shocks, tumults, and surprises experienced in 2017, and 2018 promises even more dramatic upheavals.

I haven’t been talking about my trading much at all, but it’s been my primary focus throughout the year. I spent some time reading the opinions of other traders on trading message boards, and I’m always surprised by both the negativity and lack of open mindedness in quite a few of the posts there. Negativity in the sense that so many people think successful day trading isn’t possible (why would they hang out on a trading site?), and that they are certain as to what works and what doesn’t. For example they will act as an authority that “method A” in figuring out trading isn’t possible. They base this on the fact that it didn’t work for them, and they don’t know any one personally who is using that method successfully. This type of thinking is absurd. There are many things I’m unable to do, that I know those around me can’t do either, but that doesn’t mean that particular skill hasn’t been mastered by someone outside my field of knowledge. Thinking in absolutes of what will or won’t work will limit one’s mind growth. I guess you would call that thinking “inside” the box.

My trading growth in understanding has made good progress this year. I was fortunate to be able to obtain some insights that allowed me to connect the dots with other observational recurring market behavior. So much so that I expect 2018 to be a breakout year. It’s amazing how a key insight can help bring all the other discoveries into their proper order to make for a big picture revelation. The time needed to arrive at these insights has taken far, far longer than anticipated, and makes it very clear to me why the failure rate in reaching trading success is so high.

I could delve into my thoughts about Trump’s 1st year, but that would take up too much space and seriousness, so I’ll save that for the New Year. What a year though – chronicled via Twitter!

Corporate America, Hollywood, Washington DC, and News Media have been rocked by sexual harassment allegations toppling the giants and household names from those industries.

As the wave of revelations continues, it reveals the toxic culture of workplace environments that allow and make it easy for abuse to take place for decades with the perpetrators having no fear of being exposed to act as a restraint.

What I find equally shocking, is the mythos of rich and powerful men being assumed to be masters of wit, charm, and seduction has been shattered.

The movies always typically portray the rich handsome villain being able to seduce even the most resistant woman to have her starting to pursue him by using his highly refined grace, wit, guile, and charm. The “movie prototype” never has to force himself on a woman, his romancing skills are legendary that can’t be resisted for long.

Now current events lift the curtain to reveal that many of these mega rich men in real life have absolutely no game at all. In fact – it’s so bad/pathetic, they may as well be considered to have negative game.

You would think with the wealth and power at their disposal, they would be able to attract many interested women without needing to resort to predatory sex assault behavior.

Yet, it seems the consensus of the majority of these guys was that dropping their pants and exposing themselves was a “genius” move sure to put any woman in the mood. It’s absolutely amazing how many of these men thought that exposing their private parts was a good move. It’s like any kind of social training and norms are chucked out the window in favor of the most direct, crudest approach they can think of.

Having been outed, these guys now half-apologize – never fully acknowledging their horrible actions by saying there were “misunderstandings”. There’s nothing to “misunderstand” about them exposing themselves to their subordinates, acquaintances, and coworkers. There doesn’t seem to be any misunderstanding when they can see tears running down a woman’s face as they are being groped or worse- yet they continue.

What’s closer to the truth may be these guys had zero intentions of using any type of romantic charm, and just derive pleasure from forcing themselves onto women who they know have no interest in them. They are nothing more than rich predators abusing their power in the worst ways possible.

We can see the effects of automation all around us and how it is impacting the job market. The advent of self driving cars will soon be upending the taxi industry. What many people may not be aware of is automation is moving into many job categories previously thought to be “robot proof”. There are inroads being made in law with automated systems replacing the tasks done by paralegals. Robots can now perform complex surgeries that most thought could only be done by a human doctor. Some news articles are now being generated by computer, and the list goes on…

The trading and investment industry has certainly not escaped this phenomenon. Discretionary traders and portfolio managers are under pressure from automated index funds and system trading programs that are proving to be superior, at least under current market conditions over the last few years.

Here’s an interesting read on the rise of automated systems squeezing out human traders:

History was made on Thursday, 3/30/17, when billionaire/genius/entrepreneur Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, successfully reused a first stage rocket booster that was part of a prior launch.

Up until this point, when rockets carried up satellites or other payloads into space, the stages of the rocket were deemed disposable as no one knew how to get them back undamaged. The problem with this was that the first stage of the rocket is also the most expensive component. It’s like having to throw away a jumbo jet airplane after just one use.

The technology of SpaceX changes that with the ability to reclaim and reuse the 1st stage. After several successful retrievals of 1st stage components guiding themselves back to a launch pad on Earth via AI/GPS, this was the first time one of them was actually reused on a new flight mission.

This is a game changer marking a significant reduction in space travel costs.

The Trump Administration has been on a legislative rampage since inauguration with numerous controversial executive orders and the first big planned legislative event was the repeal and replacement of the ACA otherwise known as Obamacare. They seemed intent on maintaining a high level of momentum and speed in executing their agenda.

All this came to a screeching halt on Friday as the much hyped Trumpcare/Ryancare Bill meant to replace Obamacare was pulled from the planned vote in an embarrassing defeat as there were not enough votes for the Bill to pass.

The implications and level of this failure are quite astounding. The GOP has voted to repeal or amend Obamacare 54 times while Obama was in office. There was never a problem getting those bills passed in the GOP controlled House during Obama’s term.

Now that the Republicans control the Presidency, House, and Senate, the failure of the House to pass a bill puts the GOP is a bright “Emperor has no clothes!” spotlight. The obvious conclusions are:

The Republicans NEVER had a true working plan to amend/repeal Obamacare. All those consensus votes in the past were a FRAUD knowing the bill would fail in the Senate or be vetoed by Obama. Now that they know their Bills will really go into effect, everyone is no longer on the same page.

The Republicans had seven years to develop a working replacement plan but have NOTHING to show for it. Think of all the taxpayer time and money wasted in their fake “repeal” bills put on just for show.

The GOP is very good at opposing the Democrats, but come up short at the task of governing and building consensus. It’s far easier to be disruptive than creative.

The inside story is that White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon thought he had power he didn’t have when he tried to force rebelling Republicans to get in line and vote “yes”, and their reply was basically:

As for Trump, his aura of invincibility along with his winning streak for successfully bucking the system has come to an end. All the “Business mastery” bravado and supposed “Art of the Deal” expertise have met their match at the hands of rebelling fellow Republicans.

It became all too clear that electing a person with no prior political experience or expertise to the highest office in the land comes at a cost.

Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated?? Actually, anyone with any experience or who paid ANY attention at all to the healthcare problems over the past few decades knew it was a complicated issue. You would have to be supremely arrogant or naive to think you could just walk into a problem you didn’t research or have any background knowledge in and think you would come up with an “easy” solution.

When met with this failure, does Trump own up to it and accept the loss like Paul Ryan did? Nope, he pointed the blame away from himself:

It’s beyond absurd to blame the Democrats when The Presidency, House, and Senate are controlled by Republicans and they are trying to pass a law that goes against the healthcare package the Dems created. Why would the Dems support a bill that replaces their own law with a much WORSE substitute? That’s like your boss asking you to vote to cut your pay in half, and then complaining that nobody agreed to it.

He’s also now saying he never said this bill was a top issue and that he never said he’d do it quickly- another LIE:

Does Trump have amnesia that EVERYTHING he says to the public is recorded?

Some folks will blame The Freedom Caucus – the group of Republicans that voted against the bill, but in truth, they were just keeping the GOP to their word of repealing Obamacare rather than amending it. They wanted it eliminated entirely as the GOP said they would do time and time again. The GOP was once again burned for making promises they knew they couldn’t keep.

There’s a clear obvious reason the GOP backed off fully repealing Obamacare – many of their constituents would be be impacted and lose their health insurance. That would have bad consequences for them come election time.

The GOP healthcare bill was built on arrogance and the desire to cut taxes for the wealthy rather than try to obtain low cost effective healthcare for all. They didn’t try to work with the Dems for their input or seek advice from the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, AARP, and a host of others who are opposing this fault ridden bill.

Some of the biggest problems of the bill:

Does NOTHING to address rising costs of health care services

Reduces subsidies for most and especially the elderly – the folks who will most likely need medical attention

Allows insurers to hike up costs for those over 50 up to 500% of what is being charged to younger people. Obamacare capped top rate to 300%

Eliminates all essential benefits like preventative care, prescription drugs, maternity care, addiction help, etc.. This basically allows insurers to sell you pieces of paper that say “insurance”, but cover very little so you come up snake eyes if you ever need to use it.

Eliminates Federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Even though no federal funds are used by PP for abortions by law, the ACHA tries to mandate moral agenda by forbidding PP to conduct any services regarding abortions if they wish to continue to receive funding- funding that now goes to women’s health care like mammogram screenings.

Removes “mandate” to buy insurance while keeping the rule that no preexisting conditions can be excluded. This is a recipe for disaster as people will only now sign up if they get sick, and insurers stand to lose billions. This alone GUARANTEES skyrocketing insurance rates to cover for these losses.

Gives the wealthiest groups millions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of everyone else in higher rates/less coverage

CBO estimates 24 million folks will lose their insurance.

As bad as this bill was, the GOP Freedom Caucus still felt this package was “too generous” and wanted even more cuts- to the point where moderate Republicans were now refusing to vote for this.

Trump promised he would fix the health care problems, but this bill makes things far worse. Makes you wonder if he even took the time to read it.

Now he says he will just let Obamacare implode on it’s own- walking away from the problem like a quitter instead of a dedicated elected official trying to help those who elected him into office.

Why not work to repair Obamacare to solve the problems instead of trying to just slap together a toxic inferior replacement? The answer is they want tax cuts more than they want to create a true working and acceptable healthcare plan. Thanks to the numerous angry town halls of their own constituents yelling at them to come up with a REAL solution or leave Obamacare alone, they knew they’d be in big trouble if they went ahead with this “repeal/replace” charade.

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner’s speech on Obamacare now fits the Republican American Health Care Act (AHCA) like a glove:

Republicans now OWN the healthcare issue and pressure needs to be kept on them to provide a solution that works for the majority, not just their wealthy elite donors.